analysis of a PE flight from VNY to RIV (video/audio)

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Keith Smith
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analysis of a PE flight from VNY to RIV (video/audio)

Post by Keith Smith »

Note: I may well create a sub-forum for these if we do this on a regular basis.

Jacob Eiting is a regular PE user, a private pilot (soon to be working on instrument) and an avid Twitch.TV broadcaster. He has one of the best broadcasting setups I've ever seen, with web cam, cockpit, TrackIR, moving map display, external view, etc.

Watch this video using the time stamps listed below: http://www.twitch.tv/jeiting/b/329714035

notable timestamps:
24:17 call for clearance
26:30 clearance issued
57:40 ATC asks if he's climbing to 5k (see below in the notes)

My notes from watching this up until the direct DARTS portion:
- feel free to call for clearance and program the avionics with the engine off. Keep the lights off and you'll minimize your electrical draw. You can have cooling issues in some planes if you spend long periods of time with engine running and the plane not moving. It's also not a great use of gas as you know. Sure, virtual gas is free, but if you can practice a more realistic routine in the sim, all the better. You'll also get good at saving/loading flight plans, because after you program the Garmin 530, you'll want to save the plan before shutting down the avionics prior to engine start, otherwise, you'll lose it all :)

- Not every exit point on a SID is a transition. GLENN1 SID ends at ADAMM, but ADAMM is not a transition, as such. Pilot nav SIDS, or pilot nav SIDS with a vector, typically go to a common exit point and then sometimes branch off into transitions. You can read more about it here in this article about SID transitions that I wrote a while back. It was originally to help new controllers, but it might be helpful for pilots, too.

- Regarding the part where ATC asks if he's climbing to 5k. This was an interesting chain of errors. There was ATC error on the ground not marking the strip as 4k initial (that was me, I was using a Mac laptop and didn't use the function keys correctly when marking it as a 4k initial), and then another ATC error when departure did not register Jacob's initial check-in saying he was climbing to 4k. Jacob incorrectly thought he made a mistake himself and figured the "5k in 5 minutes" covered the case and that he should've started climbing. That's incorrect, the "expect 5000 5 minutes after departure" is purely for lost communication purposes.

- speaking of ATC errors, clearance delivery (me) failed to amend his original strip (which was V186 PDZ) to show that he was on GLENN1.ADAMM to V186. That's probably why the departure controller didn't send you to ADAMM, but instead chose DARTS. We were shuffling back and forth on positions on the back end and I failed to complete that task in the process.

- the reason you heard the controller stop in mid sentence was because we changed the staffing configuration from 2 to 3 controllers (adding the ground controller). That's why you stopped hearing tower-related activity on the ground frequency and why he was cut off in mid sentence, after which you started hearing me. Sometimes we change controllers on a single position (ie, a shift change) but other times, we're actually adding/removing controllers.

- It's important to know how to manipulate the flight plan (add, edit, delete entries) once it's created. Going direct to a random fix will bypass the flight plan, as we saw when he attempted to go direct DARTS.

- when programming the route, either enter all the fixes along the airways, or at least scan them in advance to have an idea of the names. In this case, he entered ADAMM then PDZ as the route, bypassing the fixes along the way, such as DARTS. When ATC cleared him direct DARTS, he wasn't sure where it was or how it related to the plan. ATC's response/reminder of "it's a fix along V186" (which was his cleared route) was a gentle nudge that he shouldn't be so surprised to hear it. I learned this same lesson in the air not long after getting my ticket, and it wasn't very comfortable.

- lastly, it's March Air Reserve Base (KRIV) :)

Jacob is doing these broadcasts for his benefit and the benefit of others and has some exciting projects in the works. If anyone else has comments about the flight, feel free. I'd also encourage people to subscribe to his feed, that way, you'll get an email when he is about to broadcast.

Thanks for the great work, Jacob!
jeiting
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:18 pm

Re: analysis of a PE flight from VNY to RIV (video/audio)

Post by jeiting »

Wow! This was super useful.

I was just about to make a post about the "expect to 5k in 5". Glad you could clear that up.

Dealing with controllers shuffling around is something that happens in the real system everyday. And, although critical mistakes are rare, pilots needs to be double checking the controller with regards to the safety of the pilot's flight.
jtek
Posts: 72
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:12 am
Location: KSMO

Re: analysis of a PE flight from VNY to RIV (video/audio)

Post by jtek »

Great video. Do you have actual hardware knobs for your GNS530? If so, I'm very jealous. I'm clicking mine with a mouse like a newb. In the beginning of the video you looked for an ODP (obstacle departure procedure) and didn't find one, but Van Nuys actually does have an ODP (though it's probably NEVER used). It's a climbing left turn on heading 050 and VNY R-095 to DARTS INT. Also, when you heard that marker beacon right after takeoff, that was the outer marker for the KBUR ILS, which is also the reason for the 1700' restriction--to keep you below traffic descending on that ILS.

I'm so glad the "direct DARTS" thing happened, because I, too, am in the habit of entering the minimum number of fixes necessary into my GPS flight plans, usually because I'm entering the flight plan with the engine running and that hobbs meter is a cruel mistress. After seeing this, I will now try to enter ALL of the intersections, just in case I get cleared "direct" to one of them. A good lesson!

And since you asked about Chino airport, they have a really cool warbird museum and a typical airport greasy spoon restaurant.
Josh Hinman
PPL ASEL IA (KSMO)
jeiting
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:18 pm

Re: analysis of a PE flight from VNY to RIV (video/audio)

Post by jeiting »

jtek wrote:Great video. Do you have actual hardware knobs for your GNS530? If so, I'm very jealous. I'm clicking mine with a mouse like a newb.
No but I kind of wish I did. I use a mouse wheel over the knobs which you can't see in the video. I may consider getting hardware knobs as the mouse really sucks.

Thanks for watching the vid. Hopefully I'll get down to Chino some day looks really cool.
jtek
Posts: 72
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:12 am
Location: KSMO

Re: analysis of a PE flight from VNY to RIV (video/audio)

Post by jtek »

https://www.flyelite.com/shop/elite-ap- ... 30-module/

It ain't cheap. But it would really add to the realism!
Josh Hinman
PPL ASEL IA (KSMO)
Ryan B
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Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:37 pm

Re: analysis of a PE flight from VNY to RIV (video/audio)

Post by Ryan B »

I'd pay that kind of money if there was an LCD screen attached... ick!
PE ID: 29
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